SHROPSHIRE'S WILDLIFE MASTERPLAN

The word 'wildlife' conjures up different images for everybody. It might be robins or ring ouzels, bluebells or brown long-eared bats; dormice perhaps, humming bird hawkmoths or even craneflies. But marsh flapwort? Untidy earwort? Sausage beardmoss? Thick-headed flies? Unknown and unnoticed by most of us, they are nevertheless, part of the vast web of living things that have over millions of years crept, floated, blown and breathed into Shropshire.

And they have made their way into that lovely thing, the Shropshire Biodiversity Action Plan, an egalitarian document that recognises the value of each and every living creature and plant and sets out what must be done to ensure their survival.

The problem (and the beauty of it) is that there is so much wildlife. Just for a start we have over 1500 flowering plant species in the UK, 9,000 kinds of fungi, hundreds of bird species, 4,000 beetles, scores of mammals, 1500 moths, 200 bees, wasps and ants and 46 ladybirds. So the plan has to set priorities based on the relative vulnerability of species, whether at a local, national or global level.

The most valuable way to help wildlife is to look after the places it lives in - the variety of habitats that make up the landscape around us. So the plan also looks at woodlands, ancient meadows, heathland and all the other elements that make up the fabric of wild places and sets targets for recovery and renewal.

Shropshire was the first county in the UK to produce a biodiversity strategy and followed it up with a more detailed plan in 2002. Shropshire Wildlife Trust has played a pivotal role in the process, helping to bring together some 70 organisations, including groups such as English Nature (now Natural England), the National Trust, district and county councils and specialist wildlife groups. A review of the Shropshire Biodiversity Partnership's progress since 2002 was produced in 2006, highlighting the main achievements over the last four years.

SHROPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST'S KEY ACTIVITIES IN THE BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN

• Working with landowners to protect Wildlife Sites, especially species-rich grassland
• Protecting and creating floodplain grazing marshes for the benefit of lapwing, snipe and other wetland birds.
• Heathland restoration and protection: purchase and management of Nipstone and Lower Shortditch turbary.
• Lowland raised bogs: restoring water to Wem Moss
• Dormouse habitat creation and protection
• Water vole protection via the Whitchurch Water Vole Project

In addition, all the Trust's 37 nature reserves (covering a total of 1,191acres) are managed to benefit a broad range of wildlife.

To download the Shropshire Biodiversity Action Plan visit www.shropshire.gov.uk/sustainability.nsf/open/D10DFAB28E6EB70380257088004FBD87.

For the 2006 review visit www.naturalshropshire.org.uk.